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Show P O Par The Park City Council has sent a letter to the Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee making known its displeasure that the SLOC is willing to give Tom Welch big bucks to get lost but won't pony up with funding for additional police and emergency services during the 2002 Winter Games. This is the same Park City Council that took $60,000 out of the local coffers to take a little spin through Europe last summer to see what they could see at other Olympic sifes. Councilwoman “Shauna Kerr Was the-only one who refused to go on the taxpayers ticket, saying it just wasn’t right. Gee, wouldn't that $60,000 have gone a long way toward providing extra police and emergency services during the Olympic Games? er Ly < O Birdie | a Wildlife Snowbird has announced the retirement of its CEO, Ray Gardiner. Snowbird will be better served by less confrontational management. Although Gardiner was passionate about the resort, his con: frontational style put many off. When Gardiner said last year that Snowbird would not contribute to UTA bus service, it hurt ski resorts in Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons. When the US Forest Service put the construction of Snowbird’s Baby Thunder chairlift on bee a WS Intent On Wiping Out Cougars L* hold pending environmental assessraent, Gardiner sued the Forest Service. tion could be in serious trouble. The Wildlife Board’s attitude could easi- ly be placed in the 1890s, rather than the 1990s. It seems incredible that there is such a lack of respect for the conservation of Wolves and grizzlies have yet to return to And when this publication began asking hard questions about Snowbird’s indebtedness last year, Gardiner threat- this state and may never do so. For now it seems nothing will save the big cat population in Utah. I’s been 27 months since The Mountain Times first reported on the tragedy that is ened in writing to sue The Mountain Times. See ya later, Ray. befalling mountain lions in Utah. As dismal @ PAGE.2 * SEPTEMBER 1997 gists. Even they now say the cougar popula- wolves, grizzlies and eagles, Utahns apparently are intent on wiping cougars out of the state. Only the endangered species act saved eagles from being driven out of Utah. as things were in June of 1995 for cougars, it has become much worse. > Bogey The Park City Council threw away its own zoning ordinances and approved the mammoth expansion at the Park City Mountain Resort, formerly the Park City Ski Area. lan Cumming, Utabh’s thirdrichest citizen bought the resort a couple of years back and wants to build a huge real estate development, including as. much commercial space as now exists on Main Street. The project is planned to go to eight stories - something like downtown Salt Lake City, rather than a quaint mountain mining town. But the Then, State Division of Wildlife Resources biologists estimated the population of cougars at 3,000. Now they say it is something like 2,000. But they don’t really know. They depend on ranchers and hunters for data and both groups admit there are fewer cats, although there are no numbers. Hunters like it that way. They believe cougars are responsible for shrinking deer herds, despite all accepted scientific studies that show predators only strengthen deer herds and do not dramatically impact overall herd size. And lets not leave out Utah outfitters and hunting guides. To them, a cougar is worth $5,000 to $10,000 to out-of-state council didn’t seem fo care. Pontificating, like they usually do, the council waxed philosophical about how tall the historic Coalition building was before it burned down. You see in Park City, zoning laws apply only to people who don’t have zillions of dollars or are related to the mayor. trophy hunters. The cats are run down by dogs, chased up a tree and shot at close range. That's sport? For ranchers, who can no longer blame losses on wolves, cougars are like the devil and have no place on this earth. That is the ad Christopher Smart nature and wildlife by a board made up of people who posture as responsible stewards. mindset of agricultural and rural Utah. The reason that cougars are being overhunted is not complicated: The Utah Legislature is dominated by rural lawmak- The Wildlife Board admitted recently that it had no long-term cougar population management plan and was only guessing at the numbers of mountain lions in the state. The fact that there aren't any biologists or conservationists on the Wildlife Board ers, who disdain wildlife; and Gov. Mike speaks poorly of Gov. Leavitt’s judgment Leavitt has appointed a Wildlife Board to set hunting limits made up of ranching and hunting interests. Cougars are now hunted in such numbers that large percentages of females and sub-adults are being killed because there is an apparent dearth of adult males that are normally sought out as trophies. That hunters can't find enough adult males to kill is telling. Of the estimated 2,000 cougars in Utah, the Wildlife Board sanctioned the killing of 576 last year. This year they have approved a similar number. The fact that the Wildlife Board continues to sanction the slaughter but probably speaks volumes on his real attitude toward conservation. Or perhaps he’s just playing politics with wildlife. He might not want to upset the good ol’ boys over a something like the slaughter of Utah's cougar population. Cougars are not like a field of corn. Once the gene pool is depleted to small numbers, the population won't be able to spring back. This population has evolved over millions of years in tandem with the deer herd. The state-sanctioned slaughter of the mountain lion population should be seen as not just merely irresponsible but something of a man-made disaster. Unfortunately, it may be symptomatic of of mountain lions without real scientific population studies points to the backward nature of their agenda. The Wildlife Board appears to be so bent on the destruction of the mountain a culture that is unwilling to come to grips lion population that‘it won't even listen to with the preservation of nature or wildlife. It is as though Utah’s leaders are operating in their own little vacuum with the notion _ that natural resources and wildlife can not State Division of Wildlife Resources biolo- be exhausted. As though it were 1897. @ |